THE West's claim that its sanctions are targeted at the Zanu-PF leadership in Zimbabwe have been exposed for the sham they are by a WikiLeaks cable released yesterday that shows that the US government directed the IMF not to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights and lines of credit.

The IMF has over the years masqueraded as a multilateral institution that operates independently of the whims and caprices of its host, the US government.

One of the cables, dated September 2005, from New Zealand, titled "New Zealand: Response to demarche on Zimbabwe Vote in IMF," and directed to the New Zealand Agency for International Development, which handles issues related to the IMF, shows that the US controls the IMF and played a lead role in blocking the IMF from reinstating Zimbabwe's voting and borrowing rights.

"On September 2 (2005), a representative of New Zealand's Treasury noted Zimbabwe's decision to pay back US$120 million of the US $290 million it owes the Fund. The representative asked whether the US government would now consider Zimbabwe to be in compliance with its IMF obligations, or whether the United States still believes Zimbabwe should be expelled from the Fund.

"Post seeks Department guidance on how it should respond to these questions. Post also notes that the Treasury representative is due to deliver a recommendation on the issue to New Zealand's Finance Minister on September 5 (2005) and that a response by COB September 2 (Washington) would be very helpful," reads the cable signed by one Burnett

Analysts say the cable is disturbing given that Finance Minister Tendai Biti has received many "technical experts" from the IMF and only recently wanted Zimbabwe declared a "Highly Indebted Poor Country" at the behest of the IMF, a development that would have seen the IMF, and consequently the US by proxy, take over and direct not only the country's economic affairs but also the exploitation of its natural resources.

HIPC status would have served the US well in "smuggling" people into Government, disguised as technical experts, obser-vers say.

The US and its other Western allies inclu-ding Britain have been pursuing regime change in Zimbabwe.

The latest revelations also come at a time when Minister Biti's budget has raised a storm given its attempt to use Government processes to realign power centres to MDC-T ministers part of which was Minister Biti's attempt to transfer executive powers from the President to himself through amending the Exchange Control Act through the Finance Bill that was recently rejected by Senate and sent back to the Lower House for review.

Minister Biti, consequently, came under fire from the three principals to the GPA and inclusive Government; President Mu-gabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara; as well as fellow Cabinet ministers over his bid to usurp executive powers.

The WikiLeaks report also said a respo-nse from Washington would be very helpful before treasury representatives delivered recommendations to New Zealand's Fina-nce Minister on September 5, 2005.

The report also said on September 2, 2005 representatives of New Zealand's trea-sury asked the US if Zimbabwe should remain expelled from the fund after noting Zimbabwe's decision to pay back US$120 million of the US$290 million it owed.

This came at a time when the Bretton Woods institution had instituted compulsory withdrawal procedures against Zimbabwe, again at the behest of the Anglo-Saxon alliance.

The representatives asked whether the US Government would "now consider Zimbabwe to be in compliance with its IMF obligations, or whether the US still believes Zimbabwe should be expelled from the fund.

The New Zealand Treasury also reportedly sought the US guidance on how it should respond to the questions raised.

Efforts to get comment from Minister Biti were fruitless at the time of going to press.

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